BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - On Dec. 22, 2011, several of Barbara
Freeman's neighbors heard a commotion and looked out their windows to see a
scuffle. Later, they each heard a single gunshot ring out, according to testimony.

Freeman, 51, was found brutally beaten and shot to death inside
her apartment shortly after midnight.

Katrina Porter, 31, was charged
with capital murder in her death, and her trial began this week before
Jefferson County Circuit Judge Laura Petro.

Porter's brother Kevin Avery Porter and her husband Alex Carter
also were charged with capital murder.

Michael Blalock and Alaric May are representing Porter.

Deputy Jefferson County District Attorneys Joe Hicks and Julie
McMakin are prosecuting the case.

"(Katrina
Porter) didn't pull the trigger," McMakin said in her opening statement Tuesday.
"We're not going to tell you she shot Barbara Freeman. She didn't. But that doesn't
make her any less responsible for Ms. Barbara's murder."

Kevin Porter

Antonio Williams, an upstairs neighbor at the 12th Court North
apartment complex, testified Tuesday that he heard an argument and went to his
window, where he saw a fight unfolding. He said Katrina Porter, aided by her
brother, was beating Freeman.

Marsha Jackson, another neighbor and a friend of Freeman's, also
testified that she witnessed parts of the fight and identified the attackers.

Freeman's boyfriend broke up the shot by firing a single shot
into the air, prosecutors said.

The assailants dispersed, running down an alleyway and
disappearing. Freeman then argued with her boyfriend, Larry, who got into his
truck and left.

About five to 10 minutes later, Williams testified that Katrina,
her brother and her husband came back toward Freeman's apartment. Carter was
wielding a gun.

Jackson testified that she saw them return but was unable to
distinguish what the muffled voices were saying inside Freeman's apartment,
directly below hers.

A few minutes later, Williams heard a gunshot and saw the three
leave, running.

Alexander Carter

Jackson also testified that outside lights that night
intermittently came on and off and that she only heard one shot.

Both Jackson and Williams said they called 911 several times
throughout the fight and later when they heard the gunshot. When officers
arrived, they found blood on Freeman's screen door, which was slightly ajar,
and a set of keys hanging from the lock. Freeman was lying on the floor, her
face battered almost beyond recognition.

"Brutally beating Ms. Barbara wasn't enough for this defendant,
and it wasn't enough for her brother Kevin Porter," McMakin said. "This wasn't an
accident. It's not self-defense. It was an execution."

Blalock said in his opening statement that when the Porters and
Carter returned to the apartment, Katrina was pleading with her brother to "come
on," to leave, before he shot Freeman once in the back of the head.

Blalock contends Katrina Porter went to Freeman's apartment to
buy cigars, and that she didn't go looking for a fight. Freeman was drunk when
Katrina Porter arrived and that Freeman was cursing, throwing things at Porter
and "raising all kinds of Cain for talking to her man," he said.

Freeman's oldest daughter, Niesha McQueen, testified that she
saw her mother the night of the shooting. On cross examination, she told
Blalock that her mother was not drunk earlier that night when she stopped by to
visit McQueen.

Blalock also called into question the initial statements
witnesses gave police on the night of the shooting, claiming their accounts had
changed between the night of the shooting and their testimony in court.

Katrina Porter has remained in jail on $200,000 bond since the
shooting. Her trial continues Wednesday at 9 a.m.